Roman Curia reform, one brush-stroke at a time

Francis has shown that he is determined to continue moving tenaciously to reform the Church. He's tried to be sensitive to those who are unsettled by the reforms, as long as they are not actively working against him.

Archbishop Xavier de Mérode! “Making reforms in Rome is like cleaning the Sphinx with a toothbrush.”

Pope Francis has gained a reputation for being a Church reformer.

But not everyone is convinced that he's been very successful at reforming the one institution in this 1.2 billion global Catholic community where, arguably, he has the ultimate authority to bring about at least structural changes – the Roman Curia.

Just how difficult a task is he up against?

Xavier de Mérode, a Belgian count and archbishop who was a top aide to Pope Pius IX and Minister of War of the Papal States way back in the mid-1800s, put it this way:

"Making reforms in Rome is like cleaning the Sphinx with a toothbrush."

Francis repeated the count's "amusing but pointed remark" this week while giving his annual pre-Christmas address to top officials of the Roman Curia and cardinals who reside in the Eternal City.

In past years the pope has used the holiday gathering, which is a very old papal tradition, to speak about ad intra (internal) aspects of, what he calls, the ministerial diaconia (or service) rendered by the various departments of curia. This year he focused his 33-minute talk on the ad extra dimension of the curia's work, which he said were "of fundamental importance for the entire Church and… for the whole world".

Francis first looked at the role of Holy See diplomacy, principally through the Secretariat of State, as a "builder of bridges, peace, and dialogue between nations". He then touched briefly on the curia's relationship with dioceses and episcopal conferences around the world as being "grounded in cooperation and trust, and never (based) on superiority or conflict".

The pope also reflected on the Roman Curia's role in promoting Christian unity as being that of "fostering an encounter with our (non-Catholic) brothers and sisters, untying the knots of misunderstanding and hostility and counteracting prejudices and the fear of the other".

Similarly, he said the curia must be committed to dialogue with Jews, Muslims, and people of other religions. He said this requires "the courage to accept differences". He warned that those seen as "culturally or religiously" different "should not be seen or treated as enemies, but rather welcomed as fellow-travelers, in the genuine conviction that the good of each resides in the good of all".

But before offering his thoughts on these matters, Francis prefaced his address with further remarks on the arduous task of internal reform at the Vatican, while sternly rebuking those officials who working to block it.

He said cleaning up such an "ancient, complex and venerable institution" as the Roman Curia requires "patience, tenacity, and sensitivity". And if the late Archbishop Mérode's toothbrush and Sphinx analogy is correct, it will also take a whole lot of time.

Let's put it into a bit of perspective.

The Great Sphinx of Egypt, which is believed to have been built somewhere between 2,000 and 7,000 years before the birth of Christ, is considered one of the largest single-stone statues in the world. With the head of human and the body of a lion, it stretches about the length of goal-line-to-80-yard-line on an American football field and reaches six stories high.

During Mérode's time in the mid-1800s, the Sphinx was buried up to its neck in enormous amounts of desert sand and several attempts to unearth it proved futile. It was not until several decades later – between 1925-1936 – that French engineer Emil Baraize was able to completely clear away the sand to reveal the ancient monument's base.

He certainly did not use a toothbrush. And neither, it seems, will Pope Francis.

Patience, tenacity, and sensitivity

The Argentine pope has been tenacious in his efforts to bring about reform and renewal in the Church. He's probably been more successful at changing perceptions and attitudes – call it the overall Catholic ethos, if you will – among the vast array of believers (and non-believers) around the world. But changing the mindset and workings the Roman Curia? Probably not so much.

Here at "home", he's tried to be sensitive and patient. However, during his pre-Christmas talk to the cardinals and curia officials, Francis – who had just turned 81 a few days earlier – showed that he's losing patience with those at the Vatican who are standing in the way of his reforms.

He identified at least three types of obstructionists.

First, there are those who foment an "unbalanced and debased mindset of plots and small cliques". He said that "for all their self-justification and good intentions" they are, in fact, part of "a cancer leading to a self-centeredness that also seeps into ecclesiastical bodies, and in particular those working in them".

Second, there are "those who betray the trust put in them and profiteer from the Church's motherhood". Here it is worth quoting the pope in full:

"I am speaking of persons carefully selected to give a greater vigor to the body and to the reform, but – failing to understand the lofty nature of their responsibility – let themselves be corrupted by ambition or vainglory. Then, when they are quietly sidelined, they wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system, of a 'pope kept in the dark', of the 'old guard'…, rather than reciting a mea culpa."

The third type of obstructionists Francis identified are those working in the curia "to whom all the time in the world is given to get back on the right track, in the hope that they find in the Church's patience an opportunity for conversion and not for personal advantage".

Names not spoken

Who, specifically, are the obstructionists that Pope Francis had in mind?

One might easily think of Cardinal Gerhard Müller. And the German cardinal may have thought this, too, judging by his demeanor as he sat stone-faced listening to the pope's address.

Ever since the 69-year-old cardinal was relieved of his duties as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) last July, he has given nearly a dozen interviews lamenting the fact that Francis did not renew him for another five-year term as head of the doctrinal office.

Müller has talked about "cliques", "plots" and spies that have kept the pope "in the dark" while working against the former CDF prefect and his supporters.

But there are also a number of people in the Vatican's financial sector that have been "quietly sidelined". Most recently there was Libero Milone, the first-ever auditor general who was sacked last summer.

The official explanation was that Milone had been spying on a number of Vatican officials and committed other "crimes" punishable by law, but was let go quietly to save him and his family embarrassment. The former auditor-general left without saying anything at first, but in September he broke his silence and complained that he had been "set up" by members of the Vatican's old guard.

This is the same lament voiced by others who were brought to Rome in order to work on finance reform, but were then let go. One thinks of Mgr Lucio Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui, two members of a papal finance commission, who were fired two years ago and tried by a Vatican civil court in July 2016 for leaking documents. The priest actually did jail time, while the pregnant Miss Chaouqui was handed a suspended sentence.

The latter, especially, declared herself a martyr of the system, a victim of a Vatican old guard that was keeping Francis in the dark. She never once pronounced a mea culpa.

There is also Cardinal Raymond Burke. Pope Francis has sidelined the legalistic and doctrinally inflexible American not just once, but twice. He removed him from his post as head of the Vatican's "supreme court" and then effectively suspended him from fulfilling his duties as cardinal-patron of the Knights of Malta. Burke, like the others previously mentioned, has also cast himself as a victim of cliques and plots.

And who are the obstructionists who – at least up to now – have been allowed to keep their Vatican jobs? Cardinal Robert Sarah, for example, has been given "all the time in the world" to get in line with the pope's agenda for reform and vision for a renewed Church.

Francis has, at least twice, had to publicly correct the contrary views of the Guinean prelate whom – at the urging of Benedict XVI and those close to him – the current pope appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in November 2014.

There is also Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the prefect of the Papal Household. Personal secretary and housemate of the former pope, the archbishop has reportedly blocked people close to Francis from getting audiences.

There are certainly other officials at the Vatican, most of them secretly and carefully, who are either actively blocking the pope's reform agenda or just ignoring it.

Seeing is believing

After Francis finished his speech this week to the cardinals and curia officials, those in attendance filed up, one-by-one, to exchange Christmas greetings with him. It was a sight to behold.

Most of the cardinals and bishops – especially those known to be the pope's strongest allies, such as Kasper, Baldisseri, Farrell, Paglia, Turkson, and some others – lingered for a brief moment to speak with him. Even those less enthusiastic about the direction of the pontificate – Ruini, Piacenza, Rylko, Bertoni… -- offered more than a perfunctory handshake or kiss of the ring.

Then there were the others. Cardinal Müller approached Francis looking rather stern. He gave the pope a quick shake of the hand, muttered "Buon natale", and hurried away. Cardinal Burke, who had nodded off a few times during the papal address, smiled uncomfortably as he bowed slightly and took the pope's hand. He, too, move along without missing a beat.

Cardinal Sarah, however, genuflected before Francis and kissed the papal ring. He then seemed to make some sort of profession. Was it a promise of his loyalty to the pope? It was hard to tell. But the pope clutched the cardinal's arm, patted it and said: "Grazie! Grazie!"

Even if it takes one small brush stroke at a time, Francis has shown that he is determined to continue moving tenaciously to reform the Church. He's tried to be sensitive to those who are unsettled by the reforms, as long as they are not actively working against him. And, up to now, he's also been extremely patient with those who is doing little to help.

But as the pope showed again this week, his patience is wearing thin. And that's something the men in the Vatican should meditate on very carefully this Christmas season.

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